What Is Responsive Design (And Why Does It Matter)?
Traditionally, most online browsing was done on desktop computers (and later on, laptops). These days, however, most people will pull out their phones when they want to look for a product or read an article. This has implications for how your website should be designed.
‘Responsive design’ is the practice of tweaking your website so that it looks just as good on both small and large screens. That way, your site’s users will have an excellent experience, no matter what device they’re using to pay it a visit.
In this post, we’re going to explain the basics of responsive design. We’ll talk about why it’s important, and point you in the right direction to start implementing it yourself. Let’s get going!
The Importance of Designing a Website With Mobile Devices in Mind
It probably comes as no surprise to you that mobile browsing is on the rise. The majority of online traffic now comes from phones and other mobile devices – and the gap is continuing to grow with no sign of stopping.
This matters, because it means that a significant proportion of your site’s visitors won’t be using a desktop computer. If you design your site using a large screen, and you never stop to check how well it looks and functions when viewed on a smaller device, you’re likely to encounter problems.
After all, the mobile browsing experience is unique. Not only is the screen size extremely small, but the default layout is vertical rather than horizontal. The input method is different too – mobile users will largely navigate your site by tapping on the screen, rather than with a mouse and keyboard.
Each of these differences can result in a site that works flawlessly on a desktop or laptop, but underperforms on mobile devices. Elements may be missing or broken, and your site’s layout might appear distorted or sloppy. In addition, navigational elements (such as menus and buttons) can be too small or hard to interact with. To avoid these issues and more, you’ll need to make your site ‘responsive’.
An Introduction to Responsive Design
Designers and website owners have come up with a few ways to tackle the problems mentioned above. For instance, some adopt a ‘mobile-first’ philosophy. This involves designing a website first and foremost for mobile devices.
While that approach can help you create a site that functions well on small screens, it often results in a poorer desktop experience. It’s important to keep the needs of all users in mind – not just those using one kind of device or the other.
That’s where responsive design comes into the picture. A responsive site pays attention to what kind of device each visitor is using (mainly in regards to its screen size and resolution). Then, the site adjusts itself to display and perform optimally on that device.
Let’s take a look at an example of this design in action. First, here’s a website you’re probably familiar with – Amazon.com:
On the whole, this is a well-designed but still fairly busy site. It includes various advertisements and prompts to check out specific categories of products. There’s a comprehensive set of navigation options at the top as well, and a large slideshow banner right below that.
Now, here’s what Amazon’s home page looks like on a standard mobile phone:
Most of the key elements are still there, but they’ve been rearranged and simplified. The navigation includes less options, and sections are stacked vertically and clearly delineated from one another. Some elements have been removed, in order to draw focus to the website’s most important parts. This includes a Sign in button that’s been made a lot larger. After all, users will have to tap it rather than clicking on it with a mouse.
In a nutshell, this is how responsive design works. You can start by creating one version of the site and then the other, or build both at the same time. Either way, the result should be two or more designs that are optimized for specific types of browsing experiences.
How to Get Started With Responsive Design
Developing one site can be challenging enough – putting together multiple versions may seem intimidating. While this will take some time and persistence, however, it doesn’t have to be all that difficult.
If you already have a site and you’d like to make it responsive, your first step is to find out just how well it currently works on mobile devices. You can start by simply vising your site on various devices, which is made a lot easier if you use an online emulator tool. A little experimentation should give you a pretty clear picture of what’s working and what isn’t.
It’s also a good idea to run your site through Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. This free tool will analyze your site, and let you know how responsive it is:
What’s more, it will also offer you a list of actionable steps you can take to improve your site’s responsiveness, along with links to more information:
Following the advice here is an excellent way to make your site more responsive quickly.
Whether you’re working with a new or an existing site, it’s also worth finding out if your chosen platform offers tools that can help with this task. For example, these days most WordPress themes are inherently responsive, and there are also plenty of plugins that make it easy to design a mobile-friendly site with little technical experience.
No matter what tools you use, here are a few basic principles to keep in mind as you work on this aspect of your site’s design:
Less is more. Screen real estate is at a premium, and ‘clickable’ elements will need to be fairly large. Therefore, the mobile version of your site should be streamlined, and only contain the most essential sections and information.
Your layout should be vertical. Sidebars and similar features don’t work well on mobile sites. You’ll want to stack elements and sections vertically, rather than placing them side-by-side as you might normally do.
Make navigation clear and simple. Don’t overwhelm the visitor with too many menu options and other things to click on. You may want to consider using a ‘hamburger menu’ design for your primary navigation. This has become standard on most mobile sites, although it’s worth noting that the practice has its detractors.
Primary Calls to Action (CTAs) need to be prominent and accessible. Most sites have some kind of primary CTA, whether that’s a login button, a sign-up form, or a purchase prompt. Either way, it needs to be large, centrally-positioned, and clearly distinct from the rest of the page, or you risk having visitors miss it entirely.
Building fully-responsive sites does take a little practice. However, it’s fairly straightforward if you keep your visitors’ experience firmly in mind. During the design process, take time to go through the site regularly as a brand-new user might. Along the way, look for anything that’s confusing, difficult to use, or cluttered. This is the best method for determining whether your site’s look and functionality are up to par on a small screen.
Conclusion
When designing any website, it’s vital to remember that not all of its visitors will be the same. Not only may they have different demographics and interests – they’ll also be using a wide range of devices and browsers.
To make sure your site looks good and performs well for everyone, you’ll want to ensure that it’s responsive. This can be accomplished through custom development, or by using platform-specific tools. You can also try out Google’s Mobile-Friendly test to find out how responsive your existing site is, and start making improvements.
Do you have any questions about how to design a fully-responsive website? Ask away in the comments section below!
Image credit: Max Pixel.
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That again was no use: he but got another smile and a friendly look of the sort he no longer wanted. I said I thought I could gallop if Harry could, and in a few minutes we were up with the ambulance. It had stopped. There were several men about it, including Sergeant Jim and Kendall, which two had come from Quinn, and having just been in the ambulance, at Ferry's side, were now remounting, both of them openly in tears. "Hello, Kendall." We have this great advantage in dealing with Plato—that his philosophical writings have come down to us entire, while the thinkers who preceded him are known only through fragments and second-hand reports. Nor is the difference merely accidental. Plato was the creator of speculative literature, properly so called: he was the first and also the greatest artist that ever clothed abstract thought in language of appropriate majesty and splendour; and it is probably to their beauty of form that we owe the preservation of his writings. Rather unfortunately, however, along with the genuine works of the master, a certain number of pieces have been handed down to us under his name, of which some are almost universally admitted to be spurious, while the authenticity of others is a question on which the best scholars are still divided. In the absence of any very cogent external evidence, an immense amount of industry and learning has been expended on this subject, and the arguments employed on both sides sometimes make us doubt whether the reasoning powers of philologists are better developed than, according to Plato, were those of mathematicians in his time. The176 two extreme positions are occupied by Grote, who accepts the whole Alexandrian canon, and Krohn, who admits nothing but the Republic;115 while much more serious critics, such as Schaarschmidt, reject along with a mass of worthless compositions several Dialogues almost equal in interest and importance to those whose authenticity has never been doubted. The great historian of Greece seems to have been rather undiscriminating both in his scepticism and in his belief; and the exclusive importance which he attributed to contemporary testimony, or to what passed for such with him, may have unduly biassed his judgment in both directions. As it happens, the authority of the canon is much weaker than Grote imagined; but even granting his extreme contention, our view of Plato’s philosophy would not be seriously affected by it, for the pieces which are rejected by all other critics have no speculative importance whatever. The case would be far different were we to agree with those who impugn the genuineness of the Parmenides, the Sophist, the Statesman, the Philêbus, and the Laws; for these compositions mark a new departure in Platonism amounting to a complete transformation of its fundamental principles, which indeed is one of the reasons why their authenticity has been denied. Apart, however, from the numerous evidences of Platonic authorship furnished by the Dialogues themselves, as well as by the indirect references to them in Aristotle’s writings, it seems utterly incredible that a thinker scarcely, if at all, inferior to the master himself—as the supposed imitator must assuredly have been—should have consented to let his reasonings pass current under a false name, and that, too, the name of one whose teaching he in some respects controverted; while there is a further difficulty in assuming that his existence could pass unnoticed at a period marked by intense literary and philosophical activity. Readers who177 wish for fuller information on the subject will find in Zeller’s pages a careful and lucid digest of the whole controversy leading to a moderately conservative conclusion. Others will doubtless be content to accept Prof. Jowett’s verdict, that ‘on the whole not a sixteenth part of the writings which pass under the name of Plato, if we exclude the works rejected by the ancients themselves, can be fairly doubted by those who are willing to allow that a considerable change and growth may have taken place in his philosophy.’116 To which we may add that the Platonic dialogues, whether the work of one or more hands, and however widely differing among themselves, together represent a single phase of thought, and are appropriately studied as a connected series. Before entering on our task, one more difficulty remains to be noticed. Plato, although the greatest master of prose composition that ever lived, and for his time a remarkably voluminous author, cherished a strong dislike for books, and even affected to regret that the art of writing had ever been invented. A man, he said, might amuse himself by putting down his ideas on paper, and might even find written178 memoranda useful for private reference, but the only instruction worth speaking of was conveyed by oral communication, which made it possible for objections unforeseen by the teacher to be freely urged and answered.117 Such had been the method of Socrates, and such was doubtless the practice of Plato himself whenever it was possible for him to set forth his philosophy by word of mouth. It has been supposed, for this reason, that the great writer did not take his own books in earnest, and wished them to be regarded as no more than the elegant recreations of a leisure hour, while his deeper and more serious thoughts were reserved for lectures and conversations, of which, beyond a few allusions in Aristotle, every record has perished. That such, however, was not the case, may be easily shown. In the first place it is evident, from the extreme pains taken by Plato to throw his philosophical expositions into conversational form, that he did not despair of providing a literary substitute for spoken dialogue. Secondly, it is a strong confirmation of this theory that Aristotle, a personal friend and pupil of Plato during many years, should so frequently refer to the Dialogues as authoritative evidences of his master’s opinions on the most important topics. And, lastly, if it can be shown that the documents in question do actually embody a comprehensive and connected view of life and of the world, we shall feel satisfied that the oral teaching of Plato, had it been preserved, would not modify in any material degree the impression conveyed by his written compositions. breakfast in the kitchen by candle-light, and then drove the five The bargaining was interminable, something in this manner:— Then follows a long discussion in Hindi with the bystanders, who always escort a foreigner in a mob, ending in the question— There was a bright I. D. blanket spread on the ground a little way back from the fire, and she threw herself down upon it. All that was picturesque in his memories of history flashed back to Cairness, as he took his place beside Landor on the log and looked at her. Boadicea might have sat so in the depths of the Icenean forests, in the light of the torches of the Druids. So the Babylonian queen might have rested in the midst of her victorious armies, or she of Palmyra, after the lion hunt in the deserts of Syria. Her eyes, red lighted beneath the shadowing lashes, met his. Then she glanced away into the blackness of the pine forest, and calling her dog to lie down beside her, stroked its silky red head. The retreat was made, and the men found themselves again in the morning on the bleak, black heath of Drummossie, hungry and worn out, yet in expectation of a battle. There was yet time to do the only wise thing—retreat into the mountains, and depend upon a guerilla warfare, in which they would have the decided advantage. Lord George Murray now earnestly proposed this, but in vain. Sir Thomas Sheridan and other officers from France grew outrageous at that proposal, contending that they could easily beat the English, as they had done at Prestonpans and Falkirk—forgetting that the Highlanders then were full of vigour and spirit. Unfortunately, Charles listened to this foolish reasoning, and the fatal die was cast. "They said they were going for our breakfast," said Harry. "And I hope it's true, for I'm hungrier'n a rip-saw. But I could put off breakfast for awhile, if they'd only bring us our guns. I hope they'll be nice Springfield rifles that'll kill a man at a mile." "Dod durn it," blubbered Pete, "I ain't cryin' bekase Pm skeered. I'm cryin' bekase I'm afeared you'll lose me. I know durned well you'll lose me yit, with all this foolin' around." He came nearly every night. If she was not at the gate he would whistle a few bars of "Rio Bay," and she would steal out as soon as she could do so without rousing suspicion. Boarzell became theirs, their accomplice in some subtle, beautiful way. There was a little hollow on the western slope where they would crouch together and sniff the apricot scent of the gorse, which was ever afterwards to be the remembrancer of their love, and watch the farmhouse lights at Castweasel gleam and gutter beside Ramstile woods. "Yes, De Boteler," continued the lady, "I will write to him, and try to soothe his humour. You think it a humiliation—I would humble myself to the meanest serf that tills your land, could I learn the fate of my child. The abbot may have power to draw from this monk what he would conceal from us; I will at least make the experiment." The lady then, though much against De Boteler's wish, penned an epistle to the abbot, in which concession and apologies were made, and a strong invitation conveyed, that he would honour Sudley castle by his presence. The parchment was then folded, and dispatched to the abbot. "A very pretty method, truly! You know not the miners and forgers of Dean Forest!—why I would stake a noble to a silver-penny, that if you had discovered he was hidden there, and legally demanded him, he would be popped down in a bucket, to the bottom of some mine, where, even the art of Master Calverley could not have dragged him to the light of day until the Forest was clear of the pack:—but, however, to speak to the point," perceiving that the steward's patience was well nigh exhausted—"I saw Stephen Holgrave yesterday, in the Forest." HoME欧美一级 片a高清
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